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Red rice just the thing for festive meals / JAPANESE HOME COOKING

SEKIHAN, literally red rice, is glutinous rice that takes on a reddish hue from adzuki beans. It is a fixture on festive occasions, such as the beginning of school or the first day of a new job, events which usually occur in spring. Cooking expert Nobuko Doi says her family customarily made it on the first and the 15th of every month as a way to pray for good health and happiness.

She suggests using an electric rice cooker instead of steaming rice the conventional way. Also, the beans should be boiled only to a point where you can still feel a hard core at the center. The beans are then taken out and covered with a damp cloth to prevent drying and cracking.

(Sekihan / Image)

(Sekihan / Image)

Doi suggests pouring the water used to boil the beans in and out of a bowl to cool it. This way, the liquid will readily turn the rice an attractive shade of red.

*Wash rice and drain. Wash beans and place in a saucepan with four cups of water and bring to a boil. Add 100 milliliters of water and cook over moderate heat for 20-30 minutes, scooping foam off the surface. Drain the beans and save the water they were cooked in.

*Place rice in a cooker and pour in the cooled liquid, adding plain water to a level recommended on the cooker.

*Put the beans in the cooker, mix and cook. When done, immediately remove the rice and beans and roughly mix while fanning to make the rice shiny.

*Garnish with sesame and salt mixture.

*Conventional cooking involves soaking the rice overnight in the water the beans were boiled in before steaming. Occasionally sprinkle the colored liquid on rice while cooking in a bamboo steamer fitted over a pot of boiling water.